Respect

[HarryS]

When I hear the word "respect" in Jamaica, it's not the positive thing posted above... It's vendors and hustlers who don't accept "no" and pester you, then yell about showing them respect, which is then followed up by patois that I now know to be offensive.

When my wife hears people talking about "respect" in Negril, she gets SCARED - because we're about to be bothered by someone who doesn't want to take no for an answer. They have no idea how much they affect tourism. If not for me pushing my wife to go back, we'd be spending our vacation dollars elsewhere. Read trip reports - there are plenty of people who go once and never go back because of things like this, or never leave their AI resort due to fear.

Sorry to go off topic here, but this is something that bothers me greatly. I wish everyone who wanted "respect" was coming from the same place as the OP.

Edit - wanted to add that the pushy vendors have caused us to spend more time on the cliffs, but you can't get away from it there - one of the worst run ins I had with someone who demanded "respect" was along the cliff road. He wouldn't accept our polite refusals and began following us and making threats, demanding we stop and give him respect. I was definitely feeling threatened. If not for some vendors stepping in I was almost sure I was going to get into an altercation with this guy. I'm not a timid, fearful person either, having grown up in the NYC area in the late 70's and 80's before it was cleaned up, I tend not to fear too much when out in public minding my own business.